Lwmg LLC Raises Holdings in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Lwmg LLC increased its position in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 9,276 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 380 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up about 0.8% of Lwmg LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest position. Lwmg LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $3,992,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc boosted its stake in Microsoft by 169.2% in the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 70 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft during the 2nd quarter valued at $45,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the 2nd quarter worth $75,000. Bellevue Group AG grew its stake in Microsoft by 47.5% during the 1st quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 180 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $76,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Microsoft by 241.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC now owns 379 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $169,000 after buying an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on MSFT. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $470.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $506.00 to $548.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research report on Tuesday. KeyCorp raised their target price on Microsoft from $490.00 to $505.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $503.03.

Insider Activity

In other Microsoft news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total transaction of $3,050,352.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,792,039.56. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satya Nadella sold 14,398 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $417.41, for a total value of $6,009,869.18. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 786,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $328,473,703.53. This represents a 1.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 197,829 shares of company stock valued at $80,966,837. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT opened at $417.79 on Wednesday. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $362.90 and a twelve month high of $468.35. The firm has a market cap of $3.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.47, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $422.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $426.21.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $65.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 34.56% and a net margin of 35.61%. The business’s revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.99 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.79%. This is a boost from Microsoft’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is 27.39%.

Microsoft announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, September 16th that allows the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Microsoft Company Profile

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.